Positive youth development programs such as those offered by Boy Scouts of America (BSA) provide sources of support and opportunities for leadership and character development. Programmatic experts from BSA collaborated with researchers to develop a visual theory of change (pathway model) for youth development in Scouts BSA and for adult volunteer…

This article describes a research-enriched, action-oriented plan for supporting educators in PreK-12 district-wide mentoring through online professional development inspired by Kram's model.

Over seven million children from birth through age 5 receive child care in home-based child care (HBCC) settings, the most common form of nonparental child care in the United States. Research shows that professional development can help child care providers improve the quality of care that they offer, potentially improving children's outcomes.…

Coaching is an individualized approach to professional development where educators work towards specific teaching goals with support and feedback from a designated colleague or expert. Coaching appears to be increasingly common in early childhood education (ECE) classrooms, and a number of local, state, and federal policy initiatives over the past…

In the twenty-first century, academic libraries and librarians have recast the narrative by turning outward, engaging more deeply across the university. No longer solely focused on collecting, libraries now embrace connecting with their campus communities to foster consumption, production, curation, preservation, collaboration, and inquiry around…

This column offers a perspective on suicidal behavior among gifted students that moves away from a wholly psychological perspective to more of a community-based perspective. This model does not undervalue the role of the field of psychology in explaining suicidal behavior, but speaks instead to the importance of the salient influences of culture,…

This resource was prepared in response to a request for information from a Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) State about which RTT-ELC States are using the Pyramid Model for Supporting Social Emotional Competence in Infants and Young Children. The State also requested information about other projects States have designed to…

This article details a model for research and practice using video data for multidimensional purposes as part of a professional development school (PDS) partnership. The research methods described situate practitioners as leaders in a school working toward more inclusive school reform with support from PDS partners, including two…

Many academic librarians in the state of New Jersey (NJ) have successfully integrated information literacy (IL) into the curriculum using the ACRL IL Competency Standards for Higher Education ("Standards"). These "Standards" formed the underpinnings of IL curriculum mapping and assessment plans, and have been adopted by…

Literature finds mentoring to be a substantive, enduring practice in widespread arena, and among the attributes associated with career success and satisfaction. This paper provides a tangible mentoring model that has been operational for several years, and which applies what the literature proscribes to higher education academic settings. The…

"Foundations for Critical Thinking" explores the landscape of critical-thinking skill development and pedagogy through foundational chapters and institutional case studies involving a range of students in diverse settings. By establishing a link between active learning and improved critical thinking, this resource encourages all higher…

Nearly a decade ago officials at New Jersey's 19 community colleges sought a way for the state's two-year career and technical college system to work together to more efficiently serve the workforce development needs of the state. The goal was to say to businesses, "If you have a training need, we can help by delivering the…

This qualitative study examined school administrators' perceptions of the James Stronge teacher evaluation system, one of five approved evaluation systems by the New Jersey Department of Education from the Teacher Effectiveness and Accountability for the Children of New Jersey Act (TEACHNJ) in 2012. Fourteen administrators from a suburban district…

This article presents findings from a multi-year, qualitative study of K-12 science teacher fellows involved in a grant-funded professional development program. This research hones in on Year 2 where we examine the actions our fellows have taken in their districts as science teacher leaders and their sense of agency. The following main themes…

This essay raises questions about the future of information literacy in higher education, given the prevalence of the "Information Literacy Competency Standards" in the library profession for the past 15 years, and the heated debate that took place regarding whether the "Framework for Information Literacy" and the…